Harmony
by HedgieX
Summary: Renesmee & Jacob have a child together and call her Harmony, because she symbolises the new bonds in the family. Nessie is desperate to hold her baby, but Carlisle and Bella are keeping secrets - will they destroy everything she has? Originally written for a short story competition, but it wasn't accepted for some reason: it's my first Twilight fanfic, feedback would be lovely.


Harmony

Despite her intelligence, Renesmee had never understood genetics, really. Her father had once tried to explain the family tree to her, but her mother had thrown a pillow at him.

"She's too young for all of that, Edward."

"She's bright for her age," he'd argued, drawing some lines on a piece of paper with some squiggles underneath that Renesmee couldn't quite understand.

"But you'll bore her to death."

They'd both laughed at that.

XxXxX

Now she was older, she saw that it didn't really matter who came from where, or who shared whose blood. She knew she was incredibly lucky to have such a supportive family – Lucy, her best (and only) friend from school, had lived with her grandma because her mum and dad didn't care about her. Lucy had been killed in an 'unfortunate accident' in the forest, claw marks on her chest and dog hair stuck to her face with blood.

Renesmee particularly needed her family at the moment.

"Are you okay?"

She opened her eyes and found a man leaning over her. He smelled damp, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot, but he lifted a hand and stroked her hair tenderly from her face, and she smiled up at her husband despite the pain.

"Yeah. How's Harmony?"

"She's good."

"Can I hold her?"

Jacob took her hand gently in his, "I'm not sure, Nessie."

Renesmee had loved the story of how she'd got her name when she was little. The name 'Harmony' was a lot less exotic, but they'd chosen it because it suited the situation – their baby girl joined the family together.

Anyway, whilst the genetics confused her, Carlisle had done his best to explain: because Jacob and Renesmee both had some human genes, they'd somehow combined and made Harmony a human child.

The idea had frightened Renesmee. She couldn't imagine her daughter growing up to be older than her – whilst she was stuck at seventeen, her face youthful and her beautiful bronze hair falling in waves over her shoulders, Harmony would grow up normally, and that meant death in the end.

"I'm fine."

"I know you are, but they said you weren't strong enough yet. We don't want to rush anything, do we?"

The pregnancy _had_ been painful. Even though it was a human child (nearly; Harmony still had several vampire features, including the fact that she had a vampire scent so her family wouldn't want to eat her) she was carrying, Renesmee had been incredibly ill, maybe because Bella had suffered when she'd been pregnant.

Jacob had sat by her bed every day, massaging her stomach and feeding her strawberries, and Rosalie had come to visit a lot too. Her mum had told her that Rosalie had once been very withdrawn, and hated the world she'd ended up in, but she seemed much happier now, and Renesmee enjoyed spending time with her.

When Harmony had first been born, Alice had come skipping in with a big box of pink dresses and tiny glittery sandals and wanted to play with the tiny bundle immediately. Carlisle had dragged her out so he could assess Renesmee and check that Harmony was healthy, and she'd sat outside the door singing. They drove her mad sometimes, but Renesmee loved her family.

"Please, Jake. I promise I'll be careful."

"Okay."

He helped her to sit up. She leant forward and buried her head in his shoulder, gulping in his smell. That was another thing she could never really understand, the 'imprinting'. All she knew was that Jacob loved her, and she loved him too, and they were both perfectly content together.

Jacob laid the baby in her arms, and she cradled Harmony to her chest. She found that she was in love with her daughter; her face was heart-shaped, framed with little brown curls, and her lips were bright pink. She had freckles on her cheeks, and bright blue eyes, and yet she wasn't supernaturally beautiful; she was human. That made her even more precious to Renesmee, because she was fragile and delicate, and because she needed to be looked after.

"Oh, she's so..." her voice was hoarse, "She's gorgeous."

"I know. Nearly as beautiful as you."

"You always were an outrageous flirt."

He laughed, "Who wouldn't be around you?"

Renesmee looked down and watched Harmony blink her long black eyelashes. A single tear splashed down her tiny cheek, glistening in the morning sun, and yet she didn't seem upset. Renesmee suddenly wanted to cry too.

"Is she hungry or something?"

"No. She does that sometimes when your mum tickles her; she loves it," he smiled again at the memory, climbing onto the bed in one easy movement and wrapping his arm around her, "She cries when she's happy. She's a weird kid."

"Well, I guess her parents were both a bit weird as kids too."

"Speak for yourself!"

They lay together in silence for a long time, not needing to say anything. Renesmee's head was resting against Jacob's shoulder; she was sharing her thoughts with him, and he was smiling.

Sitting in the woods rocking their daughter backwards and forwards on a swing, and making fairy cakes in the kitchen with her. All the special little things they could do as a family, things that showed you loved the people around you. They couldn't do all of the things normal families could do, but Renesmee wouldn't swap it for the world, and she didn't think Jacob would either.

"What's going on in here?"

Renesmee raised her head. Carlisle was peering around the doorway, and Bella was close behind him, peering over his shoulder.

"She wanted to hold her," Jacob said, standing up.

"I told you," Carlisle said, rushing into the room and snatching Harmony from her arms, "It's not safe. She can't... she's not ready. You don't understand."

"No, of course I don't understand. You won't tell me anything. She's my daughter, she's _our _daughter – you don't have the right to keep secrets."

"Jake," she pulled on his shirt; she could feel him shaking through it. She turned towards Bella. "Mum, what's going on?"

"Nothing, it's okay."

"It's obviously not okay," Jacob snapped.

"There's..." Carlisle paused as Harmony started crying now. She definitely wasn't happy now; she was sobbing, pounding her fists on her grandfather's chest as though she was trying to escape. "There's complications. The fact that she's human means that Renesmee might not be able to stop herself from..."

"What?" Renesmee whispered, "Just say it?"

"You might hurt her."

"I would never hurt her. She's my daughter!"

"I know it's hard. Your dad didn't want to hurt me either, and sometimes he did, because he was so strong. We have to be careful. And you're still ill anyway; you're still recovering from the birth."

She felt fury shooting through her. They had no right to do this, to take away her daughter, that precious lump of flesh and blood wrapped in a sparkly purple blanket that Alice had bought for her adoptive niece. It wasn't fair. She tried to reach out for Jacob's hand, to communicate her feelings to him, but he'd stepped away and begun to pace the room, glaring angrily at Carlisle.

She remembered what her mother had said to her once. "I love you, too. More than my own life." Why was Bella allowed to love her daughter, but Renesmee wasn't? Why wasn't it the same?

She stood up, but suddenly the fury turned to pain, and her entire body was pounding with agony. She clutched at her chest like she'd been stabbed, sliding to the ground and falling back against the bed, unable to breathe.

"Oh my God," Jacob was by her side in a split second, cradling her in his arms, sobbing into her hair, "Nessie, I'm so sorry. Oh my God, please."

"Carlisle, do something!" Bella was demanding.

Alice had appeared in the room, and took the baby from Carlisle. He crouched down beside Renesmee and she saw his face up close, and despite the fact that he didn't age she thought he looked so old in that moment, so frightened.

She realised that he was only trying to do what was best for her, what was best for everyone, and she clung to his hand on one side and Jacob's on the other as she tried to stay conscious.

She didn't understand what was happening to her. They'd said she had to be careful for a while, but she'd never thought this could happen. She hadn't even imagined there could be such a terrible, excruciating pain.

"Just take deep breaths," Carlisle said, "You're okay."

She felt as though she was falling, although she was already lying on the ground. She tried to tell Jacob everything through her mind, tried to push words into his head, but she was too weak. All she could see were huge, beautiful stars, spinning round and round in front of her, a never-ending world.

"I love you," she managed to whisper, before she slipped away.

XxXxX

When she woke again, the pain had eased. When she looked down at her arm, she saw that it was bandaged, and she could see a trickle of blood seeping out and dribbling down her skin, but it didn't hurt.

She was surrounded by her family. Jacob and Edward were sitting side by side, both stroking her face, and Bella was holding her hand. Everyone was there: Esme, and Rosalie and Emmett, and Alice and Jasper.

"Where... where's Harmony?"

"She's here," Carlisle stepped forwards and held out the bundle (now dressed in a pink blanket, rather than a purple one – trust Alice) to Renesmee, laying her daughter in her arms, "She's fine. And so are you."

"But what about..."

"I'll explain when you're stronger," Jacob said, kissing her, "I promise. But it's okay, Nessie. We're going to be absolutely fine, and we will do all of those things; we'll go to the park, and bake cakes. We're going to be a perfect family."

"And we'll all be here to help you," Alice added.

"I'm sorry," Carlisle said quietly, "If I upset you."

"No, it's okay," she struggled up onto her elbows and smiled at everyone gathered around, watching her with worried expressions. She looked down at Harmony, sleeping in her arms, and this time her body swelled with happiness. "It's okay."

Renesmee didn't need to understand genetics or imprinting or anything like that to see that her family loved her, and that they'd always be there for her. Things wouldn't be easy, but they'd get through it together. They always did.

XxXxX


End file.
